1. Related Technical Fields
Related technical fields include navigation devices, methods and programs that search for and find a route to a destination.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a navigation device that provides driving guidance and makes it easy for a driver to arrive at a desired destination has been installed in many vehicles. The navigation device is a device that is capable of detecting a vehicle's current position with a GPS receiver or the like, acquiring map data that corresponds to the current position through a network or from a storage medium such as a DVD-ROM, a HDD, or the like, and displaying the map data on a liquid crystal monitor. The navigation device is also provided with a route search function that, when the desired destination is input, searches for an optimum route from the vehicle's position to the destination. The navigation device then displays the guidance route on a display screen and reliably guides the driver to the desired destination by providing guidance by voice in situations such as when the vehicle approaches an intersection. In addition, some navigation devices have a function that provides guidance to parking sites near the vehicle's current position or in the vicinity of the destination.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-349740, a technology is described that searches data pertaining to parking sites for parking sites at or near a destination that the user has input, then from among the search results, displays the parking sites that match what the user wants. These may be the parking sites that are available at a specified date and time, or the parking sites that match conditions such as the vehicle width, the vehicle height, and the model of the user's vehicle. The technology also acquires congestion information and vacancy information for the parking sites. A technology is also described that searches for a route from the vehicle's current position to the displayed parking site and that displays the recommended route on a display.
The technology that is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-349740 searches for a route to a parking site that is provided within a specified area that is off of the street. However, so-called on-street parking zones that are formed on-street are also provided in addition to the parking sites that are provided off-street.
On-street parking zones are parking zones that are provided on the street. On-street parking zones are seen especially often in the cities of Europe and North America, and parking in the on-street parking zones is very common.